Turkey’s nuclear ‘renaissance’: the party’s over

Poor Turkey. How would you feel if you threw a party, invited all your friends, and only one turned up? That’s how the Turkish government must be feeling this morning after the bidding closed for the contract to build a nuclear reactor in the south of the country.

Thirteen companies expressed their interests but at the end the government received just six replies. Five of them – and we’re not making this up - turned out to be letters saying ‘thanks’ for the invite but declining to bid. The industry big boys didn’t want to come to Turkey’s nuclear party.

Or rather, the Turkish government didn’t make a big enough appeal to the nuclear industry’s greed. Sweeteners in the form of subsidies and credit guarantees just weren’t big enough to attract those for whom profits come first. Polluting your country and setting back progress on renewable energy takes serious money.

Which means the party is over. Turkish competition law means the nuclear build cannot go ahead with just one bidder making proceeding illegal. We hope the Turkish energy minister hadn’t opened the champagne. We have, however, opened ours.